The Similitudes 2b

Following the Beatitudes, Jesus uses two metaphors to illustrate how those He has just described affect the world around them. This week we will continue looking at the second metaphor: light.

Matthew 5:14-16
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Last week we said that Christians are not only a light in the world, but we are the light of the world, and that true light always dispels darkness. Putting a bowl over a lamp doesn’t immediately affect its ability to dispel darkness. The bowl only limits the area of darkness that the lamp can dispel. When placed on its stand, the lamp has the potential to “give light to everyone in the house.” But putting a bowl over the lamp severely restricts that potential.

If the house represents our lives, then we are all continually moving from room to room. School, home, church, shopping and leisure activities are all rooms in which many of us spend much of our time. So we need to ask ourselves a very important question. Are we moving through the rooms of our lives with any bowls restricting our ability to dispel darkness around us? We all have the potential to bring light to everyone we meet, but bowls of sin, oppression, depression, busyness, apathy, fear and timidity all can at different times cause our light to be dimmed or even completely blocked.

Remember we said that putting a bowl over a lamp doesn’t immediately affect its ability to dispel darkness. The problem is that eventually the lamp consumes all of the oxygen under the bowl. When this happens, the flame is extinguished, and the lamp loses its ability to dispel darkness until it is lit again in an environment where oxygen is plentiful.

Likewise, if the bowls in our lives are not dealt with, but are allowed to remain in place, they will eventually suffocate the flame that God has placed within us. When we become aware of any bowl beginning to snuff out the light within us, it’s time to take action! Who you gonna call? “Bowl-busters!” This isn’t a new series on Discovery Channel, they are a set of things that can supply oxygen and fan the dying embers of your spiritual passion back into flame—even under the darkest of circumstances.

These Bowl-busters include: reading, studying, memorising & meditating on God’s Word; spending intimate time with God; being continually filled with the Holy Spirit; true repentance & forgiveness; Christian fellowship; and Christian counselling. With these in your life, no bowl stands a chance!

Today, let’s pray that:
·God will reveal any bowls in our lives that interfere with our ability to bring light the people we meet.
·God will help us use consistently all of the Bowl-busters He has made available to us.